Assessment of the Levels of Ochratoxin-A in Coffee Beans from the Coffee Growing Region of Kiambu County, Kenya

Coffee is one of the major foreign exchange eaners in Kenya. The quality of the coffee beans determines the sustainability of the market for the same.  The presence of mycotoxins in the processed coffee is one of the greatest emerging threats to coffee quality. Mycotoxins are toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic metabolites of certain moulds and are some of compounds encountered in the food and beverage industry. There are two main classes of mycotoxins found in stored crop produce, namely afflatoxins common in grains, and Ochratoxins being the most predominant, common in fruits. Of the Ochratoxins, Ochratoxin-A is most predominant and an emerging problem in coffee production over the world. In the present study, the presence of OTA in raw and processed coffee samples from Kiambu County, Kenya was investigated. The objective of this study was to assess the levels of OTA in Kenyan coffee. Sample clean-up was carried out using OTA immuno-affinity columns. Samples were collected from all the coffee growing areas of Kiambu County, a major source of Kenyan coffee and consisting of areas with varying climatic conditions using a stratified sampling design. OTA was determined using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detector after sample clean by use of immuno affinity columns. Analysis of Ochratoxin-A was on green and roasted beans to help in comparative studies. Whether, roasting causes significant reduction or increment of OTA was tested using t-test and Mann Whitney u-test. The result of this study provides baseline data as to the levels of OTA contamination in the Kenyan coffee industry and suggests possible control measures. HPLC analysis indicated non- appreciable levels of OTA in premium coffee types AA and AB while acceptable levels were detected in Mbuni. The calibration curve of OTA standards by HPLC-fluorescence procedure gave an LOD value of 2.05 µg/Kg and LOQ value of 2.441 µg/Kg. Test of the efficiency of method used was carried out by spiking the samples with standard solutions. Spiking of green coffee indicated a recovery level of 79.56%±1.31%, while that of roast coffee gave a recovery level of 50.62%±2.77%. The recovery studies showed that appreciable levels of OTA are lost during extraction and clean up procedures while roasting causes appreciable decline to OTA levels and so is processing of coffee. TLC analysis could detect up to a minimum of 150 µg/Kg of OTA and it is therefore unreliable in analysis of the low limits of OTA allowed in coffee

Female Genital Mutilation: Its Physical-Social Effects on Individuals and Reasons for Its Persistence among Communities

Over the years, women have experienced discrimination in many parts of the world. Besides being regarded as the weaker sex, women have endured workplace discrimination, sexual harassment and even domestic violence. Among some communities, wife battering which is perpetrated by their husbands is considered to be an art. Other discriminatory practices include pornification of women in advertisements, victim-blaming, where women rape victims are accused of dressing provocatively, and general marginalization and misogynistic practices. Other undesirable practices include forced marriages and child marriages where underage girls are married off to old men who pay bride price. When bride price is viewed from this angle, it acquires a different significance as it commercializes women and the marriage institution. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is another practice that demeans and dehumanizes women depending on the reasons advanced for its practice.   FGM is one of the major human violations meted against women. This paper looks at female genital mutilation (FGM) and attempts to outline some of the reasons for the persistence of the practice in many parts of the world despite concerted efforts to eradicate the practice. Although the practice is criminalized in many countries, the perpetrators receive low sentences for the crime thus failing to act as a deterrent. This paper is significant in that it gives an insight into the socio-cultural justification and hence perpetuation of FGM. Keywords: Female Genital Mutilation, women’s rights, human rights, cultural practices, Alternative rite of passag

Effect of breed and feeding strategy on the eating quality of Kenyan beef

In Kenya, most of the livestock are reared on grass using extensive pastoral systems. Nevertheless, intensive feed-lot systems to finish beef cattle have become popular among local producers. The two systems are likely to have a different impact on the eating quality of beef, because quality is determined by the combined effects of breed, nutrition and management. The effect of free-range and semi-feed lot feeding strategies on the eating quality of beef from Zebu and Sahiwal breeds was assessed. A 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design was used (two breeds fed using two feeding strategies). From each single breed and feeding strategy combination, seven cattle were selected after three months of feeding. The cattle were slaughtered and their rump steaks sampled. The samples were frozen for 24 h then thawed for 4 h prior to analysis. The steaks’ pH was measured after cooking. They were then subjected to Texture Profile Analysis (TPA), ‘Warner-Bratzler’ Shear (WBS) tests, and organoleptic evaluations. The pH did not differ significantly with feeding strategy or breed (P≥0.05). The result from TPA and WBS revealed that semi feed-lot Sahiwal beef was tender than free-range Sahiwal beef (P<0.05). On the other hand, there was no difference in tenderness between feed-lot and free-range Zebu beef (P≥0.05). An analysis between the breeds showed that feed-lot Sahiwal beef was tender than feed-lot Zebu beef (P<0.05), but there was no difference in tenderness between beef from free-range Sahiwal and free-range Zebu (P≥0.05). In the sensory analysis, there was a significant difference for each of the sensory parameters (P<0.05, each). Steaks from semi-feed lot Sahiwal were preferred to the other beef steaks. In conclusion, a semi-feed lot feeding strategy has the potential to improve the eating quality of beef from Sahiwal breed. Nevertheless, the improvement in the eating quality observed with Zebu breed, although not statistically significant, gives an opportunity for value chain actors to explore other management systems that can be combined with those assessed in this study to improve eating quality.Keywords: Beef, rump steak, eating quality, Sahiwal, Zebu, feed lot, pastoral, Keny

Pragmatics in Parenting: Language Strategies in Communicating Issues of Sexuality to Teenagers by Kenyan Parents.

This study sought to examine the features that characterize parents’ talk when they attempt to speak matters of sexuality to their teenage children. It identified and described various features of style which were analyzed in light of theories of pragmatics such as Brown and Levinson’s Politeness theory, Austin’s Speech Act theory and the theory of Cooperative Principle by Grice. The study sample consisted of parents of teenage children who were interviewed to give accounts of the kind of talk that took place between them and their children on matters of sexuality.  The results showed that features of indirectness abound in parents’ utterances with only occasional direct utterances. The study provides some interesting linguistic insights into the pragmatic choices of language that people make in ordinary conversation to meet their communication needs when faced with sensitive topics such as those to do with sexuality. Key words: communication, indirectness, pragmatics, sexualit

Correlation of clinical data, anatomical site and disease stage in colorectal cancer

Objective: To evaluate the colorectal cancer clinical data with respect to the anatomical location and stage of disease. Design: Retrospective observational study. Setting: Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: Two hundred and fifty three tumours were categorised as right colonic (RCC), left colonic (LCC) and rectal (RC) lesions. The distribution of symptoms (rectal bleeding, tenesmus, change in bowel habits, abdominal pain, intestinal obstruction, rectal mass), anaemia, transfusion requirement, and the Dukes\' stages were compared for right colon, left colon and rectal tumours. Results: There were 54 RCC, 59 LCC, 140 RC lesions. Patient delay from onset of symptom(s) to presentation was a mean of 26.6 ± 43, 20 ± 25 and 33.7 ± 42 weeks for right, left and rectal lesions respectively (p = 0.092). The proportion of patients presenting with rectal bleeding was 21%, 44% and 79% for RCC, LCC and RC lesions, respectively. The prevalence of intestinal obstruction was 14.8%, 27.1% and 43.6% in right, left and rectal lesions, respectively. The haemoglobin levels were significantly lower for right sided lesions (p = 0.05 for right colon/rectum pair; p = 0.059 for right colon/ left colon pair). The sites of the lesions had no relationship to the stage of disease at presentation. Conclusion: In patients with colorectal cancer, the duration of symptoms was prolonged irrespective of the anatomical sub-sites. Symptoms were evenly distributed across the anatomical regions except for bleeding and obstruction which predominated in rectal and left colon cancers respectively. This underlines the need for early investigations in patients with rectal bleeding, change of bowel habit, intestinal obstruction and anaemia. East African Medical Journla Vol. 85 (6) 2008: pp. 259-26

Assessing Communication and Situation Awareness in Medevac Operations

Aeromedical service and air ambulances have shown to play a significant role in the society. Mounting evidence suggests that there is an improved chance for recovery, survival, and a reduction in fatality rate when air ambulance services are made available to trauma patients. The aeromedical crew is regularly involved in critical missions that typically operate at very low altitudes, severe weather conditions, and involve unfamiliar terrain. This research seeks to assess the operations of aeromedical operations and increase both pilot and medical crew Situation Awareness (SA) through communication. A survey approach will be used to solicit feedback from Aeromedical Evacuation (Medevac) Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on their communication procedures. The researcher will then design and create a new communication model that will be derived from a survey questionnaire composing of questions relating Crew Resource Management (CRM), SA, teamwork, communication, power distance, as well as safety. This investigation will involve the creation of a new checklist that includes medical information. It is expected that the SA of the pilots will significantly improve as a result of this process. The researcher recommends that recurrent basic medical training should be administered to medevac pilots and basic principles of flight be taught to medical personnel assigned to medevac operations

Textuality of English Composition Writing by Form Two E.S.L. Students

The performance of English at KCSE level has been improving over the years. There was need to find out if this improved trend was reflected in the composition writing of students in Kiini Secondary School in Maara District in Kenya. This paper looks at the adherence to the standards of textuality in composition writing by form two students in Kiini Secondary School. It also investigates students’ written texts to establish the extent to which they conformed to the standards of textuality. It further examined the structure of students’ written texts to find out whether they applied the standards of textuality as they wrote their compositions. This paper establishes the effects which the standards of textuality had on the performance of the students in composition writing. The findings of this paper contribute to scholarly material in text linguistics which is within the field of Discourse Analysis. Keywords: Textuality, E.S.L.,Cohesion(Cs.),Coherence(Cc.), Informativity (Info.), Acceptability (Acc.), Situationality (Sit.), Intentionality (Int.), Inertextuality (Inter.

Young patients with colorectal cancer at a tertiary hospital in Kenya, 1993–2005

BACKGROUND: The onset of colorectal cancer appears to be two to three decades earlier in developing countries. Data on whether colorectal cancer in the young has worse prognosis than in older patients is conflicting. METHOD: Clinical charts of 70 patients ≤40 years old were reviewed to determine clinical and pathological patterns and treatment outcomes. Their data were compared with a larger group of older patients treated between 1993-2005 at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. RESULTS: The data retrieval was highest for sub-site distribution and lowest for pathology information. Patients ≤ 40 years of age comprised 27.3% of all colorectal cancer cases treated over the study period. There were 41 males (58.6%) and 29 (41.4%) females patients. The most common symptoms were abdominal pain (76.9%), change in bowel habit (71.4%) and rectal bleeding (54.3%). The mean duration of symptoms was 24.6 ± 30 months. The rate of advanced colorectal disease (Duke C and D) was 73.5%. Mean follow-up time was 5.8 months with median survival of only 6.9 months. The Duke staging, histology, symptom duration, locations of tumours, follow-up and the complication rates were similar for young and older patients. CONCLUSION: Younger patients form a significant proportion of colorectal cancer burden. Both the clinico-pathological characteristics and treatment outcome correspond to older individuals. It is suggested that the concluded colorectal symptoms in younger patients should also be aggressively evaluated including early endoscopy. A prospective follow-up study of patients with the disease will unravel the true survival picture

Factors associated with time in therapeutic range among patients on oral anticoagulation therapy in a tertiary teaching and referral hospital in Kenya

Oral anticoagulation with warfarin is challenging owing to the drug’s narrow therapeutic index. Achievement of therapeutic range ensures safety and efficacy of warfarin therapy. A retrospective study of four hundred and six patients on warfarin anticoagulation was conducted at Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya for the period between January 2014 and June 2016. The percentage of follow-up time spent in therapeutic international normalized ratio range was computed by Rosendaal linear interpolation method. Factors associated with this time were also explored. The mean age of the participants was 42.7±16.9 years and the ratio of females to males was 3:1. The mean percentage of time spent in therapeutic international normalized ratio range was 31.1%. Poor anticoagulation control was associated with congestive heart failure (p=0.047) and the independent predictor of time in therapeutic range was renal dysfunction (β= -13.3, 95% CI: -25.9, -0.8, p=0.038) suggesting that management of these patients needs to be intensified.Keywords: Warfarin, time in therapeutic range, oral anticoagulatio

Integration in Computer Experiments and Bayesian Analysis

Mathematical models are commonly used in science and industry to simulate complex physical processes. These models are implemented by computer codes which are often complex. For this reason, the codes are also expensive in terms of computation time, and this limits the number of simulations in an experiment. The codes are also deterministic, which means that output from a code has no measurement error. One modelling approach in dealing with deterministic output from computer experiments is to assume that the output is composed of a drift component and systematic errors, which are stationary Gaussian stochastic processes. A Bayesian approach is desirable as it takes into account all sources of model uncertainty. Apart from prior specification, one of the main challenges in a complete Bayesian model is integration. We take a Bayesian approach with a Jeffreys prior on the model parameters. To integrate over the posterior, we use two approximation techniques on the log scaled posterior of the correlation parameters. First we approximate the Jeffreys on the untransformed parameters, this enables us to specify a uniform prior on the transformed parameters. This makes Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations run faster. For the second approach, we approximate the posterior with a Normal density. A large part of the thesis is focused on the problem of integration. Integration is often a goal in computer experiments and as previously mentioned, necessary for inference in Bayesian analysis. Sampling strategies are more challenging in computer experiments particularly when dealing with computationally expensive functions. We focus on the problem of integration by using a sampling approach which we refer to as "GaSP integration". This approach assumes that the integrand over some domain is a Gaussian random variable. It follows that the integral itself is a Gaussian random variable and the Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (BLUP) can be used as an estimator of the integral. We show that the integration estimates from GaSP integration have lower absolute errors. We also develop the Adaptive Sub-region Sampling Integration Algorithm (ASSIA) to improve GaSP integration estimates. The algorithm recursively partitions the integration domain into sub-regions in which GaSP integration can be applied more effectively. As a result of the adaptive partitioning of the integration domain, the adaptive algorithm varies sampling to suit the variation of the integrand. This "strategic sampling" can be used to explore the structure of functions in computer experiments